This week, 30 aftermarket professionals have returned to the classroom for Session II of the University of the Aftermarket’s sold-out Leadership 2.0 experience. Throughout the week, they will hear from industry leaders such as Tim Lee, MAAP, president of Lang Distributing Inc., analyze the latest industry challenges, present their intersession research findings and hone their leadership skills before returning to their jobs at aftermarket manufacturing, distribution, association and vehicle service organizations. Once again, several participants in this week’s session have agreed to give us their insider’s take on the experience, as part of our second annual Leadership 2.0 blogger series. Our second blog entry this week comes from Nikki Ayers of Ayers Automotive Repairs.
 
Blog #2

Thanks, Chris, for the great lead off to the second week of Leadership 2.0!  I can’t thank the aftermarket enough for creating this program.  Leaders = SUCCESS! YOU ARE in CHARGE of YOUR ATTITUDE!

First, let me introduce myself.  I am Nikki Ayers. My husband, Robert, and I have been in the aftermarket for almost 35 years. We own two shops in Santa Barbara, Calif. We are extremely proud of our accomplishments and participation with many aftermarket projects over the years.
Leadership 2.0 is like a dream come true! We have everyone in the market here at Leadership 2.0 – shop owners, wholesale distributors, manufacturer teams and corporate participants. An interesting cross-section of the aftermarket, leaving out the pressure of competition for a day or so with the willingness by all to gain knowledge and help create a better automotive aftermarket industry.

Dr. John Passante was Monday’s morning mentor. He discussed a lot of things, but the issue of trust is one that resonated with me. TRUST – we need to learn from our children and grandchildren. They have no preconceived notions. Consider, as a leader, what happens when you need to take an employee aside and make an observation or judgment about their production or behavior – what do you do?  How do you develop that person’s trust and how as a leader do you let the employee know you only have their best interest at heart? How do you create the necessary change? Are you the kind of leader who can produce necessary change within your workforce, team or corporate structure?

An interesting exercise we did in the first session with Dr. Passante in September was writing a letter to ourselves about our goals. Dr. Passante sent it back to us just before we re-gathered in April. Never opening the letter, he asked us to consider what we had previously written and think about our journey and the progress we had made. He left each of us with personal note on the envelope. Most of us, I would guess, had not given it a second thought since last September. The question was had we accomplished anything, and, more importantly, had we remembered what was important to accomplish six months ago? 

An interesting and thought provoking-exercise, and in my case, [I realized] how little I really thought about my future goals and the reason I have not accomplished what I had hoped to in the past six months.
Leadership 2.0 has become one of those journeys you really never expect to take in your life in the world of automotive repair. Dr. Passante stressed the need for all of to become mentors and pass on our knowledge. He left us with an infamous quote by the great Charles Brown: “No greater burden than having potential.” And that my friends is the automotive aftermarket! POTENTIAL. What an industry we have!!!
SUBARCTIC Survival – Would you be DEAD or ALIVE?

The afternoon session followed with professor extraordinaire Dr. Frank Morgan. Most of us have been stressing for several months over our group presentations. He eased our stress level when he discussed team dynamics and what I think all of us found was how well we had worked together as very diverse teams. As teams, we were given a quick project based upon the assumption our group had crashed in small plane somewhere in the cold frozen banks of Canada. We were give a list if potential survival items.  Individually we evaluated the need of each item as an individual and as team members. Funny thing – after the exercise, there was only one team that wouldn’t have survived better as a team rather than as individuals. Adam Lee – you are one incredible soul! You, more than all of us understood the dynamics of individual survival.

What I found most interesting during the afternoon discussion was that of distance leadership. A new constant that most of us whether in the automotive aftermarket or another industry will need to learn the new dynamics of team leadership.

A distance team, the team that is coming to be much more common constant in our industry. Possibly team members not in the same place and maybe not even in the same time zone will be a part of the team. A team that will be developed through a conference call or an online chat is much more difficult to assess and maintain. As leaders, it will become critically important to know who your team members are, assess very quickly who is a part of the team and what timelines/tasks each member is responsible for and the overall goal. And probably even more important is understanding how the team is going to function and what are the acceptable norms of the committee and referred to as part of the process. What are norms – participation, goals, communication, respect, etc.?

Team dynamics are an integral part of team leadership. Who is qualified to be a member of the team and is the climate constructive to produce change and an effective outcome. Is the goal understood?  Is there competition within the group and why?  Can that competition be unifying? Is it a more effective way to get a decision made, is there commitment from the other team members and most importantly is there buy in, especially with the cultural differences as the world economy grows.

In conclusion of day 1 of Leadership 2.0 2012, I thought was quite profound and all of us should think — “Flock Facts:

By flying in a V formation, geese can travel 71 percent farther than any one goose.

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates to the back and another goose takes its place.

Geese honk from behind to encourage the leader.

When a goose becomes sick or injured, two other geese help it until it dies or gets well.

We would do well to emulate geese!”

(Leadership 2.0, Dr. Frank Morgan discussion, 4-16-12)
Should we ALL reconsider the flock, re-acquaint ourselves as part of a family and grow the automotive aftermarket exponentially? Definitely something to ponder … On to tomorrow and understanding corporate dynamics and the effect on the aftermarket.

Thank you for allowing me to ramble and rethink some old thoughts and processes and gain new insights into one of the most exciting and diverse industries any of us could imagine being a part of. — Nikki Ayers